The Rolling Stones Played the Best Show You Didn't See Last Night

Last night the Rolling Stones played the ideal show that everyone wants but no one ever gets to see. They played a short set of their best hits and favorite covers at a small, "surprise" gig at the Echoplex, a 700-person Los Angeles club. Be jealous, because you weren't there.

It was the unofficial kickoff of their North American mega-stadium mega-tour. Everything the Rolling Stones do is on the biggest stage possible, except for last night's show. That's just how it is when you're the biggest rock and roll band in the world. But this, this was different. The show was announced early Saturday morning on the band's Twitter account. Tickets were given out via a lottery and sold for $20 a pop. (Even with that layer of randomness, The Hollywood Reporter says Johnny Depp, Bruce Willis, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Skrillex, Brian Grazer, Steve Bing and Jim Gianopulos were all in attendance.) Yes, the guys in the band are embarrassingly old now. Their new tour is celebrating their 50th year in the music industry, after all. But they can still play their instruments better than most people that are half, or even a quarter, of their age.

For the few lucky fans who got to go, it was the kind of show everyone dreams about. Seeing the biggest band in the world play a small intimiate venue. And the setlist couldn't have been better. They played "Midnight Rambler," Start Me Up," "Street Fightin' Man," "You Got Me Rocking," "She's So Cold," among others. And then, on top of all that, they played covers of Otis Redding’s "That's How Strong My Love Is," and Chuck Berry's "Little Queenie." The encore? "Brown Sugar" and "Jumpin’ Jack Flash," because of course that was the encore.

Here's the video the band released after the show:

This is a terrible video of a hilarious local news report about the show. Look at the cast of characters who got in:

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